1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a training device for training the course of movement off a person by manipulating an object to be moved by the person in a predetermined manner.
2. Description of the Related Art
For all manipulations of an object by a person, for example of a tennis racket by a tennis player, of a ball racket by a ballplayer or of a defensive weapon by an attacked person, it is essentially important to achieve an optimal course of movement of body and object in order to obtain with a minimal effort and a minimal physical effort a maximal effect such as, for example, a maximal ball speed or a maximal power transmission onto an attacker.
Here, there results the problem that this optimal course of movement is to be acquired and practiced strenuously and by a lengthy and repeated training. This problem will be discussed below with reference, as an example, to a tennis player however, it does concern in general all manipulations of an object by a person, for example for ball sports for which it must be acted with a ball racket onto a ball in a predetermined manner or for which a controlled travelling, rolling or gliding movement is to be carried out with gliding or rolling sports equipment such as skis, skateboards, inlineskates, snowboard etc.
Attention must be paid to the fact that an average tennis player plays relatively bad, that tennis training is lengthy, expensive and frustrating, that many learners thus loose the interest in it and that the possibilities of playing tennis are not exploited, even by professionals, because of the ignorance of certain stroke versions and stroke optima.
Therefore, the training progress of a training which is executed in a traditional way is, among others, so little or so strenuous because the learner does not know the xe2x80x9cideal course of movementxe2x80x9d of a certain stroke, for example of serving when playing tennis.
Here, by xe2x80x9cidealxe2x80x9d a stroke is to be understood for which the whole course of movement is optimally adapted to the personal anthropometric measures and kinematic qualities of the player so that, with a minimal expenditure of energy, the highest possible precision and energy of the desired stroke will be achieved and in order to place it on a predetermined trajectory onto a determined point on the playing field of the opponent.
It is true that the learner can observe his physical trainer, for example when serving, and learn therefrom but the question is to know if the trainer himself effects the stroke in an xe2x80x9cidealxe2x80x9d manner or if he gets into the habit of a certain course of movement corresponding to the particular kinematics of his own body which cannot be copied by the learner by reason of his own personal anthropometric measures and kinematic qualities. Even if the trainer stroke turns out to be almost ideal, the course of movement is so quick and so complex that the learner hardly can perceive it, to say nothing of being able to convert it into an own optimal course of movement.
As a consequence thereof, the learner begins to grope for a course of movement, according to the xe2x80x9ctry and errorxe2x80x9d principle, which brings him a certain success after a certain time and thus which will be xe2x80x9cprogrammed inxe2x80x9d. If the learner is very talented, has much luck or can afford many training hours, this programmed in course of movement approaches perhaps, in the course of time, the xe2x80x9cidealxe2x80x9d course of movement. But possibly the course of movement is not correct, detrimental to health or at least disadvantageous and leads to the impasse of an unefficient play out of which the learner hardly finds his way because he does not know what else he must do and because the programmed in course of movement already reached a certain xe2x80x9cautomatismxe2x80x9d which is hardly to be corrected.
In a very short time, the learner will make out xe2x80x9chis limitsxe2x80x9d and loose the interest in tennis, since he plays average at the most, does not make any progress, or else the smallest progress has to be paid deerly for with a great expenditure of time and costs. He gives up, with perhaps negative consequences for his health and for the leisure industry.
The aim of this invention is to make available a training device of the above mentioned type which eliminates the above mentioned disadvantages and which makes possible an effective and simultaneously cost-effective training of a course of movement during the manipulation of an object.
This aim is achieved by a training device of the above mentioned type with the characteristics indicated in claim 1.
In this connection, the training device is characterized according to the invention by
a data processing unit,
first sensors connected with the data processing unit and placed on the person which transmit first data in connection with the movement of the person to the data processing unit,
second sensors connected with the data processing unit and placed on the object which transmit second data in connection with the movement of the object to the data processing unit,
mechanical actuating means connected with the data processing unit and placed on the object which, actuated triggered by the data processing unit, simulate a contact with a virtual object as a tactile acknowledgement to the person,
an indicating means connected with the data processing unit and placed on the person and
a memory for reference data,
whereby the data processing unit is constructed in such a way that it calculates an ideal course of movement of body and object from the reference dates and alternatively represents
(a) the ideal course of movement in the indicating means or
(b) compares the ideal course of movement with an effective course of movement which results from the first and second data of the first and second sensors or
(c) simultaneously represents in the indicating means the ideal course of movement and the effective course of movement detected by means of the first and second sensors.
This has the advantage that a biggest possible progress and training success is achieved by the fact that the person becomes acquainted with an ideal course of movement from the beginning and can observe this course as slowly as desired, as often as desired and from any angle of view. By a comparison of the ideal course of movement with a course of movement which has been effectively executed, the data processing unit can directly give hints for improving and for a further training in a precise and objective way which no human trainer could give. Due to the visual comparison of the course of movement which has been effectively executed with the ideal course of movement calculated by the data processing unit, the person immediately recognizes its own errors and can eliminate them. From the beginning, the person or the learner executes a personally best possible course of movement and programs it in, whereby every divergence is immediately noticed and can autonomously be corrected. The training progress and thus the motivating training success are therefore particularly important.
Preferable further developments of the device are described in the following.
There also results a particularly realistic representation, if the data processing unit is also constructed in such a way that, from the reference data and the first and second data, it calculates a movement trajectory of the second object in space and represents it on the indicating means.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the object is a sports apparatus, for example a tennis racket, a badminton racket, a table tennis racket, a squash racket, a golf club, a baseball bat, a throwing hammer, a javelin or the like, or skis, skates, snowboards, inlineskates, skateboards or the like, or a sword, a bat, an epee, a foil, an axe, a defensive weapon or the like.
In a realistic simulation, the virtual object is for example a ball or a virtual person and/or a virtual object led by the virtual person or a snow slope, the route of a fun park, the course for skateboards, inlineskates etc.
For an optimal data acquisition as a calculation basis for the data processing unit, the first sensors are data gloves and/or data shoes.
In an appropriate way, the indicating means is a display.
In an advantageous further development of the invention, the indicating means is integrated into a helmet or a cap (for example a cyberspace mask or cyberspace helmet).
In order to obtain an original pattern or a reference pattern of an ideal course of movement, the reference data comprise anthropometric measures and/or kinematic parameters of the body of an average person and the ideal course of movement is determined on the base of these data.
The person can observe the ideal stroke on oneself and obtain a much improved training success by the fact that the reference data comprise anthropometric measures and/or kinematic parameters of the person and the personally ideal course of movement is determined on the base of these data.
In an appropriate way, the reference data comprise static and dynamic properties of the object such as rigidity and size of a tennis racket as well as, if necessary, dimensions of the court, net height, net width, the surface structure of a place such as for example sand, lawn or carpet and/or further parameters.
Immediate and precise indications for the training result from the fact that, in case (b) the data processing unit is constructed in such a way that from the comparison of the courses of movement there emerge data which correspond to the divergences between the ideal and the effective courses of movement.
The person recognizes further hints as to errors in the course of movement which has effectively been executed in a simple and quick way since, in case (c) the data processing unit is constructed in such a way that divergences of the effective course of movement detected by the first and second sensors with respect to the ideal course of movement are, for example, stressed in color.
A graphic and reality-orientated representation of a virtual object is obtained by the fact that two lasers connected with the data processing unit and controlled by the data processing unit are provided for, the crossing point of their laser beams corresponding to the place in space of the second object.
In an appropriate way, several virtual objects are provided for, whereby two laser beams are assigned to each virtual object and the respective crossing point of two laser beams corresponding to a place in space of the respective virtual object.